Category: Where in blazes was Teja?

There are many ways you can slice and dice the world. ‘Geography’ sounds like it ought to be a precise subject, but it is not.

I learned about our world through science, human history, sociology, politics, as well as literature – whether written or coded in culture. So in my head, I do not always classify stories using its present day country boundaries.

Sometimes it is the ecological boundaries that matter. For instance, ‘Atacama desert’ is its own geography, despite being classed under ‘Chile’. The people who have their ethnic history grown from there, are distinct for it. Similarly, sometimes it is the language boundaries that matter, or a common religious history. And sometimes, it is the country boundaries of hundreds of years ago, that matter.

Today’s national boundaries are often too young, and too superficial, to be relevant to a story.

Indeed, most of us living in a state government paradigm – especially the urbanites – can’t imagine a world where this demarcation did not exist.

But, rural areas at the edges of administration still can. In many places of the world they still live in the rhythms of life passed down from thousands of years ago, governed mainly by the limits set by nature and not man. What does it matter to someone living in the jungles of Borneo, if he is crossing from ‘Malaysia’ to ‘Indonesia’ along the highland paths his ancestors crossed as part of his same jungle country?

I mean, do I need a visa or what

:) Ah, yes. Political entity. So you’d know which state governs the systems and logistics of the location.

Yes. So I categorise the content on this webpage by ‘country’ – as in, political entities.

We have made you into nations and tribes so that you might come to know one another.

The Philippines has a distinct typhoon season towards the middle to later months of the year (although as climate change progresses, it is becoming a bit less distinct – and ‘typhoonier‘). This does not...

Travel Sustainably is a Teja on the Horizon article series reviewing my efforts to travel more responsibly. This edition reviews new things I tried when I travelled to INDIA – whether by pre-planning, or from...

The World with Teja

Some people hike to reach high points, for the view. But what makes a cool hike for me is discovering surprise weird things, like this insect with a house of sticks, climbing onto a rock!#weirdinsect #hiking #coolinsect #TidbitThursday

For today's #FridayInspiration, here's a simple video sharing from an island community organisation in a Malaysian Marine Park, demonstrating a newly-acquired glass grinding machine, which enables the island to recycle waste glass into construction materials!

Cintai TiomanSince 2014 we have been looking for a way to deal with the glass waste on tioman. we could not recycle it on mainland and there were only a few upcycling options. Thanks to funding from Yayasan Sime Darby we were able to buy this glass crushing machine last month. the machine allows us to turn glass into sand which can be used for construction. the machine is house and managed by Rumah Hijau Tioman so please send your glass bottles there.

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